Blessings and Books About Blessings

Per doctor's orders, I was home with a slight case of pneumonia for three days this week. Both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons I took a hot bath with my very favorite soaking-in-the-tub book, "An Altar in the World," by Barbara Brown Taylor. As I started at the beginning again (I usually read about a chapter a bath ) I thought about you all and wondered if you might like to know about this gently wise book (if you didn't already).

The last chapter in her book is called "The Practice of Pronouncing Blessings" and it's really quite beautifully written (as is her style). If you're interested, I was tickled to find the chapter excerpted here.

There's another story from her chapter "The Practice of Wearing Skin" that is also quite powerful. In it she talks about a workshop that she led called "Embodied Wholeness" where the folks broke into small groups and each one brought one of the beatitudes to life. When the (so happened to be) all women group acted out "Blessed are those who mourn" it became an unexpectedly moving experience …. both for them and for those watching …. true holy ground. Smiling softly because I weep every. single. time. I read it. In fact, it touched me so much so that several years ago I typed it out for myself so that I could refer to it whenever I needed to, wherever I was.

Speaking of blessings, I asked for the book, "To Bless the Space Between Us" by John O'Donohue for Christmas and have been enjoying it.  I so love the idea of having a blessing for everything.

Smiling because I'm really warming up to the idea of writing my own blessings and how this could be a lovely way to practice Hope, my word for this year.

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